- 97 - v. Commissioner, supra at 1019-1021, we described these approaches as follows: There are various approaches which may be taken in establishing whether a purchaser may treat a nonrecourse liability as a bona fide debt. One, originating in Estate of Franklin v. Commissioner, 544 F.2d 1045 (9th Cir. 1976), affg. 64 T.C. 752 (1975), indicates that when the amount of the aggregate purchase price unreasonably exceeds the value of the property securing the note (or when the principal amount of the note unreasonably exceeds the value of the property securing the note), the debt will not be recognized. In such instance, the purchaser acquires no equity in the property by making payments and, therefore, would have no economic incentive to pay off the note. Estate of Franklin v. Commissioner, supra at 1048-1049. The Estate of Franklin analysis, comparing the purchase price and size of the note to the fair market value of the property at the time of purchase, originated in real estate transactions (see Estate of Franklin v. Commissioner, supra; Narver v. Commissioner, 75 T.C. 53 (1980), affd. per curiam 670 F.2d 855 (9th Cir. 1982); Beck v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 1534 (1980), affd. 678 F.2d 818 (9th Cir. 1982)), but has also been applied to the purchase of cattle (see Hager v. Commissioner, supra), and, more recently, to movies (see Wildman v. Commissioner, supra; Siegel v. Commissioner, supra; Brannen v. Commissioner, supra). Another line of cases, in many ways compli- mentary to the above, more closely addresses the problem of bona fide loans where the sole security for such loans is a speculative asset with an undeterminable value at the time of purchase. This line of decisions holds that highly contingent or speculative obligations are not recognized for tax purposes until the uncertainty surrounding them is resolved. CRC Corp. v. Commissioner, 693 F.2d 281 (3d Cir.Page: Previous 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 Next
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